The Curious Case of Dean Winchester (Recap)

Spoiler! Spoiler! Spoiler!

Pro: This ep features Bobby, who I always love.

Con: Less Jensen Ackles than usual! (Although, I have to give guest-star Chad Everett props, he was a fantastic senior citizen Dean.)

We open on a man coming home, rushing by his wife to lock himself in the bathroom. Where he proceeds to age horribly and die.

Flash to morgue where doctor is having trouble buying the bros. as CDC agents because they arrived in such an unpredented timely manner. She shows them the 25 year old who died of old age. (Yeah, weird). This is followed by an older woman who reported her kindly old husband missing...and the bros track him to an Asian brothel. Since he's now young, generically hot, and sporting a six-pack, they identify him by a tattoo and birthmark.

After threatening to tell his wife that he's paying for threesomes instead of having shuffled off his mortal coil (which he would like her to presume), the man admits to having played a hand of paranormal poker and betting years of his life. While the first dude we saw in the show clearly lost, this one won.

A phone call to Bobby confirms that there is lore about a traveling card player making deals. The phone call also prompts Bobby to decide that all his best years are behind him, so what does he have to lose? A lot of years apparently, because the next time we see him, he's leaving a two man poker game with not much time left. (I was having trouble with the CW all night. There were a lot of scratchy sounds in the audio, so I'm not sure whether Bobby bet 25 yrs, 35 or 45). Dean meets up with Patrick, an Irish accented 900 yr old "he-witch" and demands to play for Bobby's years. And, as anyone who saw the previews knows, he promptly loses.

Sam comes back to their hotel room to find Bobby and Dean bickering and pronounces them "Grumpy Old Men." (The interactions between them did crack me up.) When they break into Patrick's place to steal poker chips, they're caught by Patrick and his powerful girlfriend (who may have been helping him scam people in a bar earlier). She and Patrick let Dean and Sam go after Dean insists that Sam cannot play for Dean's years (dudes, break the cycle of co-dependent martyrdom already). But first the he-witch gives Sam a slow round of applause that he calls a "parting gift." Dean deduces when leaving that Sam was just given the Clap.

Bobby and Dean bicker some more but they both agree Sam isn't a badass enough poker player to bring down someone of Patrick's caliber. Suddenly they receive help from an unexpected quarter--Patrick's girlfriend who while, perhaps not quite his 900 years, says she looks really good for her age. She gives them a powerful reversal spell to undo everything he's done (although it will only help people actually alive.) Dean and Bobby (whom Dean is now calling Ironsides) start working on the spell part. Sam, seemingly going rogue and ignoring Dean and Bobby's advice (what is this, season four?), shows up to play poker with Patrick. In an odd little moment, we see Patrick deliberately fold to an older guy who wants to live to see his grand daughter's Bat Mitzvah. Not sure what the takeaway from this was supposed to be, but I did find Patrick to be a refreshing change from black eyed hell demons.

About halfway through the game, when Sam exits with Patrick's toothpick, we learn that he's there on behalf of Dean & Bobby because they need Patrick's DNA to make the reversal spell work. Unfortunately, Patrick has played Sam in more ways than one, because the toothpick he let him take had no DNA and Patrick is not happy that people are trying to cheat. In fact, he seems poised to kill Sam when his loonnnnnnng-time girlfriend (did she have a name? anyone else catch it?) interrupts that she gave the Winchesters the spell in the first place and that he "knows why."

So not everything gets reversed, but Sam actually wins his poker game--4 fours to 3 Aces--thereby winning Dean back his life. And Jensen Ackles is adorable as he comes out of the building doing a jig.

We go back to Patrick and girl whose name I didn't catch and he's protesting that he doesn't want to play her but she insists--apparently she had a daughter once who aged and died and the girl misses her family and has grown tired saying that there way of life just isn't natural. (Well, duh. See the name of the show.) Parts of this storyline (such as her randomly appearing with the spell) seemed almost anticlimatic to me (although kudos that it wasn't the deux ex spell-china that saved them) but this little bit at the end with the two distraught and apparently not purely evil lovers was decently acted.

Finally, a scene where Dean and Bobby "feel their feelings" and Dean insists that just because Bobby can't walk doesn't make him any less of a solider and that furthermore, he's family and Dean needs him.

All in all, not a bad 'sode. Certainly it won't be making the list of my top ten favorites (especially when I am so anxiously awaiting next week's, which looks very promising) but I liked it. It was more sibling bickering and funny exchanges than brooding brotherly angst and guilt over who broke the first and last seals etc. Also, do love Bobby!

What did you guys think? Favorite lines? Did you think that this week's "bad guy" wasn't quite scary or evil enough to give us the usual drama or was it a nice new take? (Hey, I just realized, I made it through a whole ep and didn't have to peek through my fingers once! Of course, with Jensen conspiciously absent, my motivation to look at the TV wasn't as strong either...)

Super Scary

Halloween is this Saturday and that got me to thinking about the scariest looking creatures on Supernatural. I always have a little apprehension opening my door to trick-or-treaters because you never know what you’ll find on the other side. One year, I came face-to-face with a GIGANTIC man wearing the Scream mask and wielding a knife. No joke! I nearly slammed the door shut and had a heart attack. God help me if any of these SPN monsters show up. From least to worst, here's who would terrorize me away from my Tootsie Rolls.

10. If a Wendigo shows up I'll throw candy at it and hope that sounds yummier than me.




















9. For some reason everytime I see these ugly Sirens I think of the Hall and Oates song, Maneater.

8. Psycho chick from Family Remains is seriously scary, but I alway wonder if I'd be more overwhelmed by her smell.




















7. Shtriga's suck. (LOL. I crack me up.)

6. Sinister old men are always spooky, but especially when they're reapers.














5. Lilith - It's that creepy kid thing. Hate 'em! You won't catch me watching movies like Orphan either.















4. Doc Benton's Frankenstein face is enough to make anyone scream and I wouldn't want him to take anything from me for his cosmetic enhancement.



















3. Changelings are chilling, especially when they're Changeling children. No mother could love that face.


















2. Thanks to Tim Curry and the TV mini-series It, I don't trust clowns. This one freaks me out.




















1. I have been scared spitless of Scarecrows ever since I watched Dark Night of the Scarecrow at a Halloween sleepover when I was 11. I could barely watch this SPN episode when it aired. Seriously. Can't. Handle. Gak. Just the pic is giving me the heebies.












So what would you hate to find on your doorstep?

Supernatural News

It is so hard for me to compile the news because I avoid spoilers like mad.

Buddy TV has a pros and cons of Season 6.

Screen Rant has a positive slant on the dismal ratings. (WHY do they complain when SPN is up against the hard-hitters like Grey's, CSI and The Office? Now Fringe is taking away some of the audience. Even I have a hard time deciding how to split my time and I love SPN.)

You can write in Supernatural and your favorite brother in the People's Choice Awards. I picked Jensen.

The brothers are listed at TVGuide.com as some of the sexiest crime fighters on TV.

Hunter's Addict has some possible spoilers on Episode 10. By my count, that will be the last one before hiatus. Check it out here if you want to know.

You can help Supernatural fans raise money for Make-A-Wish! A Supernatural marathon--now that's the marathon I'm trained for.

Supernatural Wiki has a list of conventions in 2010, all around the world. Make plans now!

And, not news but another question I have. Remember last season Kripke said he wasn't planning to cast Lucifer? Do you think he meant for Lucifer to go into Sam as soon as he rose?

Favorite So Far

It was my week to do the episode recap, but there wasn't a new episode. Wah! Because I didn't realize this sooner, I didn't come up with a fabulous post to put up instead. So, I decided to start a discussion about the episodes we've seen so far.

My favorite episode so far this season was last week's, "I Believe The Children Are Our Future." One of the biggest "Whoa, didn't see that coming" moments of the season (and series) with the whole the Antichrist is an unknowing child thing. Plus, it did my heart good to see that despite everything they've been through, the brothers still managed to believe that this kid could still make the right decision and turn out to be a good guy. I really hope they're right. I think the casting people do a wonderful job with child guest stars, and Gattlin Griffith as Jesse was another superb choice. When I looked up his IMDB page, I noticed he's also in the current release, Couples Retreat, and has been a guest star on several shows.

Though many were wanting a lighter episode amidst all the darkness, my least favorite episode of the season so far is "Fallen Idol." There were definite funny moments and I like the end where Sam and Dean finally make peace.

What's been your favorite so far? Your least favorite? Why? How do you like how Kripke and the gang are doing so far this season?

Too Serious

The actual title of this post is "Are We Taking Supernatural Too Seriously, or Did the Show Just Get Too Serious?" but it was too long. :)

Before I launch into my topic, I want to clarify that "we" means all of fandom in a general sense, and doesn't mean anyone specifically. I'm amalgamating a lot of things I've read over the last several weeks, and I don't want any particular person to feel targeted.

For three seasons, I've loved Supernatural so much that watching one episode a week wasn't enough, and I've sought solidarity with fellow fans all over the Internet. The drawback is that when I adore an episode, then read several disappointed blogs about it. Man, do I deflate quickly.

This season is unique, and the complaints attack all aspects of the show. It's too dark--but it's always been billed as a weekly horror movie, and it started with the mother of an infant and a young child being burned alive on the ceiling. It's too light--how dare they match the AntiChrist with a fart joke? The mytharc is heavy, and difficult to get away from, which makes people complain that they want standalone episodes. Then we get standalone episodes, and they complain that it makes no sense to have one, don't they know there's an apocalypse going on?

What drove me to choose this topic this week was what I saw about the most recent episode, the name of which I will not type because I had the freakin' song stuck in my head for five days! My Internet trolling for Supernatural stuff is fairly limited nowadays, with about half a dozen sites and blogs on my list. I was kind of shocked to find universal displeasure with 5.06. The very same things people loved in "Mystery Spot," they hated in this episode. The combination of humor and pathos struck so many people wrong, and it baffles me.

So I wonder if we're taking the show too seriously. Have we lost touch with our overwhelming love because of that love? Most TV shows I watch are just surface enjoyment. I like them or I don't, and I don't spend a lot of time discussing them or even thinking about them afterward. Supernatural is, and always has been, different, but in sharing viewpoints, are we destroying our ability to just watch and enjoy? It seems we're always digging so deep we can't help but find dissatisfaction.

Perhaps the fault lies not with us, but with the show's writers. Maybe Kripke's taken a turn so serious it departs too far from the show's core and renders us unable to connect with the things we loved, even when they're present. But is it even possible to contemplate that? Because it's just as likely that if season 4 hadn't gone down the road it had, if they'd just continued with everything the way it was in seasons one and two, we'd have been unhappy with its lack of maturity and evolution. Few things that stay the same satisfy us for very long.

Another possibility is that our rabidity may have simply run its course. Passion, by its very nature, can only be sustained for so long.

I know there are individuals who have loved every minute of season 5, and some who have hated every minute, so my thoughts here aren't valid on that level--maybe not even on a global level. But I'm interested to hear what you all have to say. What is your temperature reading of the fandom as a whole, and how do you feel about it?

Supernatural News

(very minor spoilers, but you've been warned)

The Trickster is coming back--yay! Richard Speight Jr. will appear in a November episode. I have high hopes, as I enjoyed his previous appearances on Tall Tales and especially the unforgettable Mystery Spot.

Isn't it great when someone you adore turns out to be totally a great person worthy of that adoration? (Of course, anyone who's seen any interviews or convention appearances from Jared or Jensen knows this already). MJ passed this along, a fun tidbit featuring, most imporantly, pics of Jensen!

Based on what EW's scoopster extraordinaire Michael Ausiello had to say, I'm betting the Nov 5 ep is gonna be one of my favorites this year! It involves Sam and Dean jumping into TV shows, including a sitcom with actual laugh track and a medical drama that pokes fun at Grey's Anatomy. (Come on, producers, this just begs for a JDM cameo!)

Even though I know better (with the rational part of my brain I choose not to use) than to get my hopes up on fan-based internet casting rumors, my hopes were officially squashed when this was posted yesterday, quoting Jensen as saying he knows nothing about this whole Captain America business. (Sigh)

And finally, as you all know, Halloween is just around the corner! Why not talk the man in your life into being a Winchester for the night? (So many comments I choose not to make here). As Ashe Mischief affectionately jokes, it IS the "lazy man's costume".

So...what news have you guys heard?

I Believe the Children Are Our Future

So I signed on this morning to read the episode review for I Believe the Children Are Our Future only to learn that I was supposed to be the one who wrote it! (What happened to my reminder notice?) Since I’m past deadline, I’m just doing a quick recap and then highlighting my favorite moments.

The boys arrive in Alliance, Nebraska where people are falling prey to children’s urban legends – itching powder will make you scratch your brains out, hand buzzers will electrocute you to death, ingesting pop rocks and soda will hospitalize you, etc. Turns out one little boy named Jesse Turner believes the lies his adopted parents have told him so completely he’s making the events actually happen to his townspeople. The Winchesters quickly deem he’s a good kid, who doesn’t mean to be doing these things, but they have to ask WHY he’s capable of such power. Short answer—he’s a half-human, half-demon, born to a virgin who was possessed. Cass tells the brothers this child is the anti-christ, not Lucifer’s son, but demon spawn so powerful he’s the Devil’s greatest weapon. Cass wants to kill the boy before Lucifer can twist him to his purpose and, in Dean’s words, “nuke the angels.” Sam is appalled by Cass’s plan and suggests they tell the boy the truth and allow him to make the right choice. Cass said Sam didn’t do the right thing and he can’t take that chance with the boy. Mom gets repossessed and everyone shows up at Jesse’s house. Cass gets zapped into an action figure and, after learning just how scarily strong Jesse is, the boys do tell Jesse the truth about his parentage. He effortlessly vanquishes the demon and asks if he can say goodbye to his family before the Winchester’s take him to Bobby’s to keep him safe and train him to fight in the war. They agree and while he’s out of sight he, presumably, if the picture on his wall is any indication, magics himself to Australia. The episode ends with Cass returning to full-size and the brothers understanding why parents tell kids the cautionary lies they do and wishing their own father had lied to them.

I loved this episode! Unlike last week’s, which I thought was an awkward balance of light and dark, this one got it right. It advanced the mythology, but had me LMAO.

“That’ll do pig.” Dean’s delight in the huge, buzzer-cooked ham cracked me up.

“I got bored. That nurse was hot.” Dean
“Do NOT use my razor.” Sam
I nearly DIED when I saw Dean’s hairy palm. The only time I’ve laughed harder in an SPN episode was the cat in the locker scene in Yellow Fever.

“That wasn’t me.” Cass
All three of the guys reactions to the whoopee cushion was hysterical.

“Because I have to believe someone can make the right choice. Even if I couldn’t.” Sam
Wow, just wow. Beautifully played, Jared.

And major kudos to Gattlin Griffith who was freakin’ adorable, but believably played a kick-ass cambion. I'm sure that's not the last we'll see of him.

So, what did you think? What were your favorite parts?